Steungroep
Mpokolo Congo vzw
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Steungroep
Mpokolo Congo vzw
For the work of Father Ivo and his staff at the center Mpokolo wa Muoyo, an all-terrain vehicle is really needed. Among other things, it will be used to locate the families of the children taken into care and to reunite the children with their families. The car can also be used for ambulance transport.
Due to the vast working area and the condition of the local roads, it was more than necessary to urgently replace the 16-year-old truck Ivo and his crew were using. This may be evident from the images below.
In November 2018, the action “On sait jamais” was launched, with the aim to raise 35,000 euros to purchase a new all-terrain Toyota for the center Mpokolo wa Muoyo.
The action was launched during an info evening (November 2018) in Buizingen (Halle), the municipality where Ivo grew up. On February 23, 2019, in Sint-Genesius-Rode, we organized a quiz evening, the proceeds of which went to the action.
In addition, there were meetings in parishes, actions in schools, the action received subsidies from the City of Halle, and we were allowed to receive many donations from generous benefactors.
In the Kananga area, people often carry a plastic carry-on bag. This serves to store things they might unexpectedly pick up, find, buy or get. One never knows in advance if one will bring anything, but you never know… “On sait jamais”. So this tote bag is called an on-sait-jamais.
When planning our action to finance a new all-terrain vehicle for Mpokolo wa Muoyo, we were aiming for quite a high amount: 35,000 euros! Will we be able to raise that? Well yes, we are going for it. Because. on sait jamais!
At the beginning of December 2019, we reached our goal and, thanks to the efforts of many, reached the target amount. The order could now be placed. A long road of purchase, permits, attestations, transportation followed… For this we called on the expertise of Marti Waals, long-time Memisa employee, and on MIVA, a Dutch organization whose network in Europe provides support to enable transportation and communication in developing countries. Their expertise showed that the all-terrain vehicle would currently be best purchased in the name of the sovereign embassy of the Order of Malta, and purchased in Austria, from where the car was transported to the port of Antwerp in mid-May. There the services of “Wereldmissiehulp” (World Missionary Aid) (Boechout) were used, which arranged transportation to Kinshasa, i.e. in a container by boat to Matadi and from there to the procuratorate of Scheut in Kinshasa. But first, on June 2, 2020, load into the container in Boechout.
Via Antwerp, the car then made it to Matadi, and further into Kinshasa. There it was picked up by two employees of Mpokolo wa Muoyo:
– Kinshasa-Kananga: 1,200 km.
– Left Kinshasa Saturday morning, October 3, and arrived in Tshikapa in the evening; paved road; about 800 km.
– Tshikapa-Kananga: two days on bad road of 400 km.
Everything went well.
And then, of course, it’s time for a (short) test drive:
